Text to speak

[old_prof]

Anyway, I got a bollocking from HR. There was absolutely nothing sexy about it.

Apparently, you're not as cute as Emily.

 

[dirk2024]

I use word, I'll have to figure out the text to speech

Start with placing your cursor where you want it to start reading. Then go up to the seach box in the tool bar. (see below). Start typing in Read Aloud and it should automatically pop up. Click on it. Now for me, I have to so this twice before it will start. It's not immediate when it does, so give it a few seconds for the cursor to start moving and the speech to start speeching.

Then just listen. See how the words flow for you. I find the occasional typo, punctuation change, mispelling, or I find that I want to change a word, or a sentence, because I don't like how they sound.

When this happens, I hit the space bar to stop it. Now, unless there is a better way, this tends to delete the word its on, so I have to hit ctrl+z to undo that deletion. Then I can make the changes I want and start again. You don't have to start over at the beginning, wherever you left off will do. It can be a bit tedious as times, but its will tell/show you errors you made or changes you want to make better than simply reading this document for the umpteenth time. Oh, and be sure to hit "save" after your fixes. I don't think I've lost any yet, but don't want to chance it either.

 

[SugarStorm]

Of course they clogged up the prehistoric server, which I'm pretty certain ran on coal, or quite possibly just on wishful thinking.

Sounds familiar. Half my workplace still runs on wishful thinking. Add panic and prayer and you've got a modern tech stack in the making.

 

[OddLove]

Yes, Balabolka is incredibly useful. That it runs locally and doesn't expose you to the potential risks of putting your porn on an online "cloud" service makes it even better. Plus, it can open many file formats and edit them too... e.g. open your story that's in MS Word format and you can edit as it reads it to you.

BTW, better voices are available for it on Windows 11 (for free): see this page and scroll down to where it talks about windows 11 and NaturalVoiceSAPIAdapter

Getting difference voices for it would be awesome, but I'm very Not tech-savvy and I'm scared of ruining my computer cause the only way I know how to fix it is a factory reset. But just knowing you can add new voices for Balabolka definitely makes it way better than I already thought it was.

 

[old_prof]

Sounds familiar. Half my workplace still runs on wishful thinking. Add panic and prayer and you've got a modern tech stack in the making.

I thought it ran on the energy in the cursing.

 

[StillStunned]

When this happens, I hit the space bar to stop it. Now, unless there is a better way, this tends to delete the word its on, so I have to hit ctrl+z to undo that deletion. Then I can make the changes I want and start again. You don't have to start over at the beginning, wherever you left off will do. It can be a bit tedious as times, but its will tell/show you errors you made or changes you want to make better than simply reading this document for the umpteenth time. Oh, and be sure to hit "save" after your fixes. I don't think I've lost any yet, but don't want to chance it either.

Also: you can adjust the speed, which makes the whole process slightly less tedious, and depending on your account you might be able to choose different voices. If my account is being difficult, I get stuck with three choices (two female, one male) that all sound very robotic. But mostly I get male and female options that actually sound almost human.

 

[StillStunned]

Apparently, you're not as cute as Emily.

I'll have you know that I was pretty cute back in those days!

 

[nice90sguy]

My first few stories here were written on a Compaq PDA, during in my toilet breaks and lunch breaks at work, the only time I had to myself. I wrote like a MF on them. People must have thought I had an incontinence problem.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I don’t view it as problematic. Not sure if it’s a generational thing, or just having small fingers.

The other advantage is that you can also dictate the story to your phone and let the speech get converted to text.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

My SO struggles more with his phone, so it may be a finger size thing.

Or, like myself, he has the manual dexterity of a fur-legged hoofed animal.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I don’t view it as problematic. Not sure if it’s a generational thing, or just having small fingers.

I have the hands of a pianist or guitarist, and my ex fetishized them a lot. With that information out of the way, I think it's both a skill issue and a physiological issue.

I did manage to get some proficiency to it by writing ten minutes a day last year on my older phone, which is... roughly 25% smaller than my current phone. It doesn't seem much, but finger size and keyboard size can affect speed.

However, I've been meaning to do something that Erle Stanley Gardner done: dictating. Nowdays there's better dictating software than just voice recording, and there's one thing: no backspaces.